Just An Old Pic
by Calliope-Beautiful Voiced
Summary: [One-shot, Prime-verse]. Trapped indoors by a thunderstorm, the bots end up finding something they believed lost a long time ago.


**Hi, I've been wanting to write something cute for a while now. The result? A completely random story, that takes place at an X point within my own timeline. So, for those who doesn't know my work, some data that you need to know** ** _before_** **read this fic:**

 **Millie and Sunscorch are OCs of mine, which I used in another story, in which I brought back Elita-One, Ironhide and Chromia ―which explains their presence here, by the way. Nightglider is, also an OC.**

 **The only reason I mention them is because I have an uncanny ability to imagine all my stories within the same timeline (except some weird exceptions); so, since they already appeared in a previous fic, they just** ** _have_** **to appear in this one ―even when they don't participate at all…** **  
**

 **In my timeline Knock Out is neither an Autobot, nor a Decepticon; he's a Neutral now, and he's dating Sunscorch. That's why I mentioned him too.**

 **These were just some tips for you to know where the heck this guys came from…**

 **I hope you enjoy the story.**

 **Warnings: English isn't my mother language, so there might be some grammar mistakes in here.**

 **DISCLAIMER: I do not own _Transformers_ franchise, nor its characters. It is a registered trademark of Hasbro.**

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 **JUST AN OLD PIC**

It was one of those very rare days in which the whole team was indoors ―including the children―, yet the base was silent. The reason, you ask? There was this huge thunderstorm outside, and, being living metal, none of the bots wanted to play 'whose alloy catches more lighting'; so, for their health, they preferred not to wander around for today. Of course that they could've used the ground-bridge, but the weather made the bots feel a little down… None of them was really hyped about the idea of go for ride, regardless of the location. Though, it was just a matter of time before the youngsters felt the need of doing something; reason why both training rooms were currently being used. The Wreckers soon followed, and Knock Out went after his sparkmate… Not that he were worried of Sunscorch doing something incredibly stupid, but he sure didn't trust her judgement; less of all when the femme was nearby the other two Wreckers… Nightglider simply went back to his quarters to take a nap ―being a flyer in a stormy day was really boring…

Thanks to this, the only ones who were yet at the control room were the veterans: Ratchet, as usual, glued to his station; Optimus and Elita, who were casually talking with Fowler; and Ironhide and his bondmate Chromia, both of them tinkering with some old datapad that the femme found that morning when making the inventory at the storage room. It was covered in dust, and pretty much abandoned in a corner, thing that called the cerulean bot's attention. Knowing Ratchet, there was no way the medic was so sloppy with a datapad, so, either it was nothing important, or the old mech didn't even know it was there.

Anyway, the dust got so deep into the tablet's systems that they would need a miracle to turn it on ―or so Ironhide and Optimus said when checking the device that morning. But Chromia was headstrong, and wasn't going to lose a fight against a piece of tech.

"Sweetspark, it's broken…" The weapons specialist told to his wife, giving up the fight, out of boredom, while getting up to go and check on the human children who were playing a videogame.

"Maybe; but, since the training room is overpopulated, it's not like I have anything better to…" Suddenly, the device powered up. "Wow, it _does_ work."

"It does?" The red bulky mech wondered, truly surprised. That thing shouldn't be able to be powered on; it had piles of dust in the battery circuits!

Kind of curious, the warrior goes back to his femme's side, just to see what was saved inside that disc… And none of them could help but chuckle with a nostalgic feeling filling their sparks. Who would say that the old medic kept it all this time?

Rafael was the first one in notice the warriors' faces, so, calling the other kids' attention, the four of them walked towards the platform security riel, asking if they found something interesting. The weapons specialist smirked and nodded, before walk up to Ratchet, calling him a 'sentimentalist old bucket'.

The white and orange mech, trapped under one of his friend's massive arms, simply blinked a few times before arch an optic-ridge and look at the red bot.

"Excuse me?" He asked, unsure of what Ironhide meant with his words.

Now, even Optimus and Elita were watching their friends. Just what did the two warriors found? As if answering their unspoken question, the cerulean femme soon was next to the pink one, showing her the datapad; the Prime got a glimpse from over their shoulders, and the reaction was immediate: his optics widened in recognition of the data, and an amused sigh left his vocalizer.

"I'm afraid that Ratchet isn't the owner of this datapad, old friend. I am." He clarified with a gentle smile, and his arms crossed.

Behind the three mechs, Elita giggled, covering her mouth with her right servo. Now, even Fowler was curious.

"What is it, Prime?" The middle age man asked, walking up to where the children were.

"It's just an old picture, Agent Fowler. Nothing else." The tall bot answered, shrugging a little.

But the word 'picture' worked like magic on Miko, whose eyes glimmered as she started to ask the bots to let them see it.

Not seeing why they shouldn't know, Elita turned the datapad around for the humans to see the image. There, the kids and Fowler could see five bots smiling at the camera: three of them were clearly Ratchet (much younger), Ironhide and Chromia; the other two were a mech of red chest and blue head and legs, and a small pink femme who didn't reach the taller bot's chest, and her helm seemed to form a ponytail behind her head. No questions were need for the four teenagers:

"Wait a… Those are you!" Jack managed to comment in awe.

The five bots nodded, making the younger humans smile, while Fowler was simply standing there like a statue, trying to understand how comes that Elita and Optimus changed so much.

"Sweet!" Miko cheered with a big smile.

"The background… That's Cybertron before the war started?" Rafael asked, fixing his glasses to see the picture better.

"Iacon City, our home." Ratchet said.

"Yeah, I think we took it at the Hall of Records, didn't we? Right after Chrome and I started dating." Ironhide commented, trying to remember; and earning a nod from Optimus, who said that it was right outside his office.

"Elita, is that really you?" Millie wondered pointing at the pink two-wheeler femme of the picture.

The alluded bot chuckled.

"I was known as Ariel back then; and, yes, I used to have two tires instead of four." She explained, before take another look of the image. "My, it has been a while…" She sighed.

"A lifetime." Optimus agreed.

"It's good to know that at least _one_ of the copies survived the war…" Chromia suddenly thought out loud. "Although I'm feeling kind of old now…" She quickly added, narrowing her optics.

Ratchet scoffed, still trapped by Ironhide's arm.

"I'm not getting any younger either, you know?" The white and orange mech grumbled, averting his optics.

"Hey! Why not take another one now?!" Miko proposed, really enthusiastic about the idea. "You know… Now that you five are together again!"

"Pass…" Ratchet hurried to say, while breaking free and going back to whatever he was doing.

The other four chuckled at the quick retort, remembering that it was hard to convince him the first time too; in fact, it was even harder than Orion! But, finally, the red warrior was able to talk the medic out of his stubbornness, and the five of them took that picture of themselves, just to have something to remember their group if they ever followed different paths. Of course that, when the war hit the city, and their original houses became nothing but rubble, the copies of the picture were lost.

The only reason for Orion's to still exist was that, when the conflict broke out, the clerk made additional copies because… Because he was afraid of losing one of his precious best friends, and have nothing to remember their exact looks. Even after he became a Prime he was yet afraid, and made sure to preserve one of the pictures always near him. He was really grateful and relieved when, scavenging the remains of their old base at the silo, he found the datapad which, somehow, survived. It was the only piece of Cybertron, of his life as Orion Pax, that he still had, and the idea of lose it was frightening.

"Oh, c'mon, Ratch!" The Japanese girl complained, her cellphone already in her hand. "Just _one_ picture?"

The old bot glimpsed at her for a split second… and went back to his research.

"No, no, no… Ya're asking him wrong, Miko." Ironhide said, serious, with his hands at the sides of his hip. "Now, allow me to show ya the right way." He offered…

…and Optimus's sixth sense started tingling.

"Ironhide, what…?" Before he could finish his question, the weapons specialist was inside the med-bay, rummaging through the medic's tools.

"He's asking for it, isn't he?" Elita mused out loud, crossing her arms.

"Pretty much." The former clerk admitted, knowing what his friend was plotting.

A second later, the red mech reentered the control room, carrying Ratchet's favorite wrench. It did get him the medic's attention… and a threat to his spark. The point was: the older mech was finally peeled off the main system's terminal, and agreed to snap the picture if the warrior returned his tool to the place where it was prior.

The kids couldn't help but laugh at the scene in which two adult Cybertronians behaved like five years old kids; especially when Chromia admitted that the weapons specialist did the same to convince him the first time. Then, not even Fowler could help himself.

Next morning, there were two extra pictures in the wall where Miko was displaying all the images of the bots that she accumulated over the years. In one of them, you could see Ariel, Orion, Ratchet, Ironhide and Chromia smiling at some Cybertronian who was taking a picture of them, right in front of a large window from which you could spy on Iacon's city panoramic view. In the other one, you could see Elita-One, Optimus Prime, Ratchet, Ironhide and Chromia inside the Autobots' outpost on Earth, smiling at the camera which was being held by Miko.

Needless to say that the children started to wish for more storms to come.

 **THE END**

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 **I hope you didn't find it too boring, and that you enjoyed it.**

 **Let me know what you think, ok?**

 **Hope to see you around!**


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